One Stormy Night
by Moria-111
Summary: Squall goes on vacation and Rinoa sneaks along for a ride-*the* ride, I mean. No bashing of any characters. Doesn't yet have the bits that make a PG-13 rate necessary.


Well, I found this bit of a fic packed away in the corners of my creative writing folder. I'd spent forever on it, tweaking the paragraphs and stuff, and then forgotten about it. Well, here it is, and I hope everyone who reads this enjoys it, even though I do tend to stick to the guidelines laid out in the game.  
  
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Squall was relieved that he was finally allowed to take a vacation. He was tired of being commander of the Garden, tired of everyone going on and on about him and Rinoa, tired of Rinoa hanging on his arm everywhere he went, with people watching them. He just wanted to be alone. He should've known better.  
  
  
  
"Bye Squall!"  
  
"Have fun on your vacation!" called Zell sarcastically. He was going to the Cape of Good Hope, now that it had been fixed. It was the ideal retreat. And he wasn't just going to relax the whole time. The renovated orphanage hadn't had its new heating system installed, and the only supplies that he was bringing was a standard Garden supply pack, filled with things for long, hard training journeys.  
  
As the Ragnarok sped on its auto-piloted way, he relaxed in one of the comfortable chairs on the passenger deck. Might as well enjoy the luxury while he could. Later he would remember that the vessel had not felt very empty. Later he would recall that the door had not closed immediately as he passed through the doorway, and that Rinoa was not in the send-off party. Right then all he was thinking about was a weekend all by himself. Or so he believed.  
  
The Ragnarok arrived at Edea's house a few hours after Squall's departure from Garden. The pre-programmed landing was smoothly executed and Squall went inside the beautifully renovated orphanage.  
  
  
  
Squall climbed out of the Ragnarok and stepped reverently onto the ground on which he had been raised. So many memories of this place had been lost. That was why he had chosen the orphanage as his vacation spot. Also, it only had one bed, so he had that as an excuse for not taking anyone else with him (if anyone had actually wanted to spend an entire weekend with little food or warmth). He wanted to remember everything that he had forgotten. He picked up his backpack and walked inside. Since the refurbishing of the house, the orphanage had acquired a new smell of wood, stone, and mortar, and all of the Jelleyes had finally been driven out. Squall sat down on the new sofa with a sigh. Ever since he had made up his mind to come here, his excuse was that he felt like being alone for a while, which was perfectly reasonable, considering the fact that he was Squall, after all. But, now that he was by himself, he stopped trying to convince himself that he wanted to be alone. The truth was, he wanted to be alone with Rinoa.  
  
He had thought that admitting it would relieve his mind of the pressure, but instead it only made him want to be with Rinoa even more.  
  
He shouted aloud to no one in particular, "Why can't I stop thinking about her?"  
  
"Maybe because you love her." The voice came from nowhere. Squall looked around, trying to determine the whereabouts of the sound.  
  
"Who said that?"  
  
"I did."  
  
He looked around confusedly. "Who are you?"  
  
The voice laughed. "You say you can't get her out of your mind, but you can't remember what her voice sounds like?" Until the voice had said that, Squall had not recognized it as Rinoa's.  
  
Squall looked around frantically. "Rinoa? Where are you?" The air in front of him rippled, and the grass flattened. Rinoa appeared. Squall simply stood stock still, his mouth hanging.  
  
Finally he found his voice, "H-how, when did you learn that?"  
  
She laughed, full-voiced and throaty, "Edea's been helping me to expand on my powers. I never really expected to use it for anything but fighting, when, what do you know, you decide to take a vacation, and I had just learned how to become invisible. Wonderful coincidence, don't you think, Squall?" she winked at him playfully.  
  
Squall wasn't sure what to say, so he dropped into his old, sullen attitude, "I told everyone that I wanted to be alone. Why are you here?"  
  
Rinoa simply grinned, "You said so yourself. You can't stop thinking about me. And to be quite honest, my mind has been thinking about little else besides you. I love you Squall, and I know you love me. Much as you try to hide it, ever since the kiss on the balcony there's been no chance that I could leave you, or you me. We were meant for each other, and you know it." Rinoa looked a little surprised at herself for speaking so fervently about the subject, to say nothing of Squall's astonishment.  
  
He gathered his thoughts and looked into Rinoa's eyes, "Why didn't you speak up before? You know I'm new to this sort of thing. I hid it because I wasn't sure if you felt as strongly about me. I love you with all my heart, and all I needed was confirmation from you. I'll never let you go, Rinoa," and with that he reached out and swept her off of her feet, and carried her into the house.  
  
He laid her gently down on the single bed, knelt beside her, and kissed her passionately on the mouth, "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." He ran out to the Ragnarok, grabbed the extra supplies he had brought in case of an emergency, and some candles he'd brought in case he had a problem with light. Once he got them, he rushed back into the house, and into the bedroom. Rinoa was still laying on the bed, waiting for him. As he regained his breath, he set the candles into some of the candelabras that stood around the room. The sky was already beginning to darken as he finished lighting them.  
  
When he turned back to the bed, Rinoa was eating some of the food in the pack.  
  
"I'm hungry," she explained. "And besides, if we're gonna be spending all of this time together, alone, I think we'll be needing our strength." She gazed at him meaningfully. Squall looked down in embarrassment.  
  
He cleared his throat nervously then said, "Er, well, I suppose I'd better go check, um, on the Ragnarok." He turned quickly out of the room and walked away with short, brisk steps.  
  
When he got outside, he took a deep breath of the crisp, cool air. It cleared his head, for which he was grateful. Rinoa's comment had shaken him. "Sometimes she scares me," he thought to himself, "She's going too fast. I'm not used to this or ready for what she's thinking of."  
  
  
  
He walked back inside. Rinoa said to him, "Is the Ragnarok alright?"  
  
"What? Oh, yeah, it's fine," he looked down, unsure of how to phrase what he wanted to say. "Look, Rinoa," he began, "I'm not sure how to say this, but –" he was cut off as a loud sound from outside drowned out all noise. They both looked up in alarm.  
  
Squall rushed outside, Rinoa close behind, to see what was going on. They looked up to the sky and saw a huge Ruby Dragon settling onto the ground in front of the orphanage.  
  
"I thought I had this placed sealed against monsters!" shouted Squall, furiously.  
  
"Come on, Squall, a Ruby Dragon is nothing after Ultimecia and Omega Weapon. Let's just get it out of here."  
  
Squall nodded his head, and they rushed out, weapons drawn, to meet the intruder. The battle was quick and clean, the final blow coming when Squall struck off the monster's head, sending it flying from the force of the blow, to land in a tree many yards away.  
  
"I didn't realize we were *quite* that strong," said Squall, staring in wonderment first at the decapitated corpse, then at the head peaking through the leaves of the distant tree. "Come on Rinoa, let's go back inside."  
  
"Right." They went back into the cottage, but did not return to the bedroom. Squall went to the kitchen, to see if the cooking facilities were properly installed for two-person cooking, and Rinoa went to the living room to see if there was a radio or some other source of news, with the intention of seeing if she could hear anything about the Garden. Unfortunately, with the knowledge that only Squall would be there, training during his visits, for some time, the workmen had neglected to get around to the finer luxuries, knowing that they would not be used on a training visit, and that there was plenty of communication devices in the Ragnarok, which everyone knew was the vehicle that the eight famous SeeDs flew around the world.  
  
Since it was quite apparent that there were no forms of entertainment in the orphanage, Rinoa went outside to sharpen her Limit Break skills. She used her Angel Wing limit, and promptly transformed into a powerful sorceress-angel.  
  
Squall, having satisfied himself that the kitchen was sufficient for his purposes, went to go find Rinoa. When he went outside and saw that she was training, he sat under a tree and watched her exercise. As she stretched her wings, he wondered briefly what a one-winged angel would look like. As the thought passed through his mind, he had a brief vision of a silver- haired man, clothed in black, and what appeared to be hockey gear on his shoulders, carrying a nastily long sword, walking through a field of flames. He shook his head, wondering where the vision had come from, then returned to watching Rinoa.  
  
Rinoa continued to practice, stopping only when she got thirsty. As the first stars began to come out, Squall called to her, saying, "Rinoa, it's dark out. You should come in now."  
  
She looked over at him, considered, and nodded in agreement. "You're right, Squall. Let's go inside." Her white-gold wings slowly retracted as she lowered back to the ground.  
  
Squall reached over to her and took her hand. Come on, I've got some food ready. I figured you'd be hungry after all that work. You trained harder today than was really healthy. You're going to be sore tomorrow."  
  
"Gee, Squall, you actually sound concerned," she said contemptuously. He withdrew his hand, taken aback by the poison in her voice.  
  
"Rinoa, what's wrong?"  
  
She immediately burst out in gleeful laughter, saying, between eruptions of giggles, "Oh, Squall! Ha-ha! I got you!" A look of bewilderment appeared on Squall's face. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't help it! I wanted to play some sort of trick on you, and that was the best I could come up with on short notice. I'm really sorry. Next time," and here she winked impishly at Squall, "I'll try to come up with a better joke, okay?"  
  
Squall shook his head, not quite sure what to say. He replied, in a very Squall-like fashion, "Whatever, Rinoa." She began laughing again at the customary reply. Squall could not for his life figure out what she thought was so funny, being so unknowledgeable about the entire female gender in general, let alone teenage girls, and so he continued on to the house, not even bothering to puzzle it out. However, as they continued back to the orphanage, Squall became troubled at how realistic Rinoa's scorn had seemed. Was he just imagining it, or did he really see an angry glimpse of fire in her eyes? 


End file.
